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New images spark more safety concerns, prompting call for city to play bigger role in mega bridge project

Footage posted by a pro-democracy activist shows concrete blocks submerged at western artificial island

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Images from a YouTube video seemed to show wave-absorbing concrete blocks completely submerged at one end of the western artificial island. Photo: SCMP

The Hong Kong government must “fight” for a bigger role in managing the mega bridge project linking the city to Zhuhai and Macau, a group of politicians and scholars said on Thursday, as new images showed part of a protective wall at one end of the bridge’s western artificial island was completely submerged.

The images were posted by a pro-democracy activist, who claimed his friend took the aerial shots on Monday.

Concerns about the cross-sea bridge project’s safety mounted after photos appeared online last week of the eastern artificial island with wave-absorbing concrete blocks, known as dolosse, scattered in the sea as if they had drifted away.

The dolosse at the eastern artificial island along the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge project. Photo: SCMP
The dolosse at the eastern artificial island along the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge project. Photo: SCMP

Mainland Chinese officials at the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge Authority insisted the structure was deliberately designed that way.

But pointing to the new images on Thursday, former architectural sector lawmaker Edward Yiu Chung-yim questioned how the Hong Kong government would deal with potential safety lapses and recommended it get more involved in the multibillion-dollar project now.

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